Improved harpoon



2 SheetFSheet 1.

J. D.- B. STILLMAN.

Bomb Lance.

Patented Apr. *6, 185

N. PUERS, PHOTO-UTHOGRAPHER. WASHINGT 2 SheetsSheet 2.

J. D. B. STILLMAN.

Bomb Lance.

Patented Apr. 6, E852.

NEEI'ERS. PHOTmurRacRAPuEm WASHINGTON, D c.

NITED STATES J. D. B. STILLMAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVED HARPOON.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 8,862, dated April 6, 1852.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J. D. B. STILLMAN, of the city of New York, have invented a new and useful Combination of the Harpoon and Lance for the whale-fishery; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings,-is a full and exact description.

The instrument is of such construction that when thrown in the manner of the ordinary harpoon it detaches itself into two parts, the one having the barbs attached remaining fixed near the surface of the whales body, while the other, constituting the lance, is thrust deeper into the body by means of traction on the line attached thereto.

The apparatus is constructed in the following manner: A lance is made of the form represented in Figure 1, with a shaft, a, of uniform diameter and of such length and size as may be convenient. At the extremity opposite the head It is an aperture, 0, for the passage of a line. A socket, S, Fig. 2, is so constructed that it may slide upon the shaft to and fit closely to the head h, forming a prolongation of the same. Two flukes or barbs,

-b b, are fitted into slots in the socket, near the head of the lance, and movable on pivots. The inner end of each is rounded and furnished with a catch, which, when the flukes are shut down in a direction parallel to the shaft, latches over a corresponding catch formed on each side of the shaft, and holds the socket with the flukes attached in fixed coaptation with the lance-head. When these flukes are spread out at right angles to the shaft the socket is free to move upon the shaft. A gasket, as g, in Fig. 3, may be used to hold the flukes down to their place.

At the lower end of the socket are two pulleys or pivots, p 19, over which a line may pass. The line l, Fig. 3, is passed through the orifice O as far as its center. The two extremities then pass over the pulleys p p and unite with the whaleline used with the ordinary harpoon.

All the essential parts being now described, the more particular action of this instrument will be better understood.

The apparatus is thrown in the same manner as the ordinary harpoon. The head of the lance and socket enter past the barbs, the gasket slips off, and when retraction begins the pointed extremities of the barbs spread out, as in b b, Fig. 2, unlatching from the shank, which is thereby liberated. Traction. being still continued upon the line, and the barbs preventing the return of the socket, the power upon the line is expended at the extremity of the lance-shaft, forcing it inward until it is arrested by bone or entirely buried in the body of the whale. Figs. 4 and 5 are different modes of applying the power to the shaft.

I do not claim making the flukes separate from the point, or causing the latter to enter deeper than the former into the body of the whale; but

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination of the sliding and unlatchin g flukes with the lance and the lines, or their equivalents, by means of which the point is driven deeper by the drag or traction on the line, substantially in the manner herein described.

J. D. B. STILLMAN. 

